Breakfast: cooked up some rotisserie chicken with a grated apple
Lunch: leftover meat loaf
Dinner: chicken, sweet potatoes and shallots over mixed greens
Snacks during the fights: some beet and sweet potato chips, pistachios and blueberries. and a banana. i am frickin' starving lately, not sure why

Workout was the GMB intro to rings pretest. It seemed easy but we tested twice for each exercise and didn't do as well the second time, so I'm guessing it was more of a workout than it seemed.

-top position hold: I got 31.5 seconds and didn't even have the rings turned out

-front scale: I managed to get to 90 degrees, but only held it 13 seconds on the right side and 14.5 on the left

-hollow body pushups: I don't feel like I could do this correctly; it's such a weird move

-ring pullups: 1. so I feel like I can't even get a dead hang since the rings hang pretty low, but I just had to put my legs off the ground before starting

-hollow body hold: so I can't keep my lower back flat unless I do this with my knees bent, so I did that for 1:12

So I did that plus their warm-up and cool-down stretch... No BJJ tonight because I was covering these fights, but I get to go Friday night and Saturday morning and possibly tomorrow.

I'm super tired and hungry lately, though, which is weird because I don't feel like I've been working that hard, but eating those sweet potatoes tonight felt good... as did sleeping 9.5 hours last night...

Lunch at a cafe. I got a "sandwich" with roasted veggies but threw out the bread and ate the veggies. Most expensive couple forkful of veggies ever, but I was starving. I also had a chai and two gluten-free wafer type things.

Dinner was leftover rotisserie chicken and pistachios. Oh and I had a bunch of chocolate truffles. My new way to get myself to eat less of them is to buy the expensive ones (like $10 for a box of 4-5) but I still had like 9. Probably 500 calories or so, not that I'm counting.

Workout was just a hollow body plank and hollow body hold. Missed jits to work but I'm going to do open mat tomorrow and Saturday since there's no Friday night fights, may as well take advantage of it. I'm trying to come up with a new goal for jits since 5 days a week is unrealistic for me right now. Maybe 3... Saturday morning open mat and then M/W if possible...

I was doing well with getting to bed before 1AM but drinking chai messed that all up.

Okay, so I got an adequate amount of sleep and got back on track today.

Breakfast: blueberries plus 2 eggs and 2 slices of bacon. really late breakfast.
Lunch: actually, I went to a cafe. but!! i got tea instead of chai! and no cookies! lol.
Dinner: fish and asparagus. also a post-workout banana.

2 weeks with fish oil so far and starting on Monday in addition to the fish oil I'm going to make sure all of my starchy carbs are post-workout.

Workout #1 was the last day of the first week of our rings program

top position holds: 3 sets X up to 30 seconds (mine were more like 10-15 and my rings were not turned out yet)

front scale--starting at 90 degrees and then lowering a bit to make sure I could maintain form. 3 sets of 10 seconds per leg

hollow body push-ups 2 X 5. we were supposed to hold in each position, but just doing the thing is hard enough

reverse row sit-backs: 2 X 5.

hollow body hold: 3 X 30 seconds.

Workout #2 was about an hour of open mat. Lots of rolls in, I think 6 or 7. One of my coaches was telling people who to roll with, which was annoying because I'd find someone to roll with and then he'd re-pair us up. I think it was to get people to roll with this newer girl who was there, but she was getting so exhausted because he kept sending people over. Eventually I just asked him if I was allowed to ask someone to roll and he said it was fine but I think I pissed him off. One of my teammates told me I just have a problem with authority. I think it's more that I have a problem with authority when they don't have their finger on the pulse... The guy was sending person after person to roll with someone who needed a break, and some of the people he put me with I wouldn't have chosen to roll with (including a spazzy white belt, who I'm not even supposed to roll with according to our head coach) so it seemed more random than anything. But it ended up being okay and I got to roll with everyone I wanted to roll with, just in a different order, though I guess it's annoying to have the one class I can go to with some semblance of autonomy turn into something different.

Game-wise, still focusing on guard recovery, my weak area. Landed a bunch of subs today, which felt good, though my armbars are still sloppy. I am still trying to work the moves from high mount we learned on Wed, but no luck yet.

So I did about 90 minutes of open mat this morning, maybe rolled with 8 or 9 guys (and got to pick who I rolled with, as per usual except for yesterday, so that was nice). I also got to roll with my coach for the first time ever, and that was awesome; he gave me lots of little things to work on... like resting with feet on the hips knees out in guard and then putting my hooks in only when I'm ready to sweep. I could tell he was setting up a lot of stuff for me to get so I went for it but it's stuff I don't usually go for (like triangles from guard), and when asked I told him the reason I didn't trust my triangle was b/c I get stacked and so he showed me how to transition to an omo/armbar combo that prevents stacking. And he showed me a new way to break lapel grips that actually hurts so people won't try to regrip as readily, and we talked about far side hooks from back takes. And we talked about controlling the hip from half before fishing for the underhook and finishing the guard pass. So that was cool. And he told me I was moving a lot better, which is nice, but like how many times can I be "moving a lot better" and "really improving" as a 3-stripe white belt is what I want to know. I guess I haven't been training all that much for the past few months, though, only like 30 classes or so since I got striped.

Anyway, so food...

Breakfast: Todd made this amazing thing with eggs and chorizo and sweet potatoes... I figured just before a workout is almost as good as post-workout for the starchy carbs... Thing was delicious but I only had a little b/c I didn't want to be sick for the workout.

Lunch: I just had a plum and a beef stick and a coffee drink (cheat #2 for the week but I need the caffeine to stay up and work during the fights.)

Dinner: We just took out a cube steak and New York strip steak, cut 'em both in half, and then we had a bunch of steamed kale from our garden with Kerrygold butter and it was so delicious. Plus I had some cashews and blueberries.

Pretty good this week, overall, and I'm starting to feel like I'm moving a bit better that I was a couple weeks ago, so that's good.

Today was an insanely busy day... Got up, went to my garden to weed and harvest (kale! tomatoes! parsley!), then took a shower and went to this Paleo/MovNat meet-up, then went to Trader Joe's to get groceries, then went to the park to work on some MovNat. Non-stop, all day.

Breakfast: two eggs and three slices of bacon
Lunch: oh, oops, I skipped lunch again. I keep doing this. but I had free TJ's samples and some dark chocolate. Just water at the cafe where we did our meet-up.
Dinner: this butternut squash, broccoli and ground pork meal from the Paleo Table.
I will probably also eat a plum.

I'm back down to only 10 lbs. higher than my competition weight and 7 than my preferred walking weight, so I'm happy, I'm thinking only a month or two and I'll be good again.

Workout was just MovNat stuff; I'm still working on the 2 remaining tests I need to pass (since I think the running is good for now.) I thought I'd knock out the throws, since I got 5 of 8 and needed 6 of 8, but it's hard to play wallball without a wall. We tried to use a fence but since it was chain link the depth perception threw me off. Then we did it on a wall at a park, putting a 3" X 3" target about 8' high, but the wall was only like 8.25 feet, and when I hit too high it hit the roof, which made it looked like I missed even though it would've hit the target if it wasn't for the roof. So I'd miss a shot and land like 6 and miss two... I totally don't want to cheat with creative editing to make it look like I landed 6 of 8 when I landed 6 of 9 (etc.), so I need to practice more or find another wall. It's frustrating, though, b/c I thought I'd be able to pull this off right away. Ah well, can't hurt to get some more throwing in.

So I woke up super sore, and I think it may be from the 50 wall balls I did yesterday, haha. Anyway, skipped BJJ to just do the rings workout.

I kind of need to figure out my schedule. I've been trying to only work 8 hours a day instead of 12, but I need to break it up more so I can start my ring workout earlier and still get to jits. It worked out today to not go anyway b/c I'm so sore (I think I'll do Tues/Thurs/Sat) but just in the future.

Anyway. So my workout today:

top position holds -- 4 sets of up to 10 seconds. My rings are still not turned out; just getting used to pushing down through the rings and keeping my posture strong and stable.

hollow body pushups-- holding the top position, taking my time on the way down, holding at the bottom and then holding at the top after exploding up. 4 sets of just 1.

hollow body holds -- 4 sets of 5-10 second holds, with 30 seconds in between. i still am doing a modified position to keep my low back glued to the ground

handstand practice--5 sets of just trying to hold handstand position against the wall for 10 seconds. I am still really getting used to it and it's gonna take a while i think to talk my body into letting me move my hands closer to the wall so i look like i'm doing a handstand instead of a modified pushup, lol.

Breakfast: Green eggs (spinach and eggs blended together)
Lunch: Leftovers from yesterday, so yeah I had butternut squash not after a workout.
Dinner: So I tried to eat this jambalaya stew but it was sooo spicy. Then some cherries and cashews.

So I said I was going to do jits 3 days a week, which means I'll have to do Wed/Thurs/Sat since I work Friday night (Bellator's on) and didn't go today... Same problem; too sore to do advanced, too bored to do beginner's. Wed is intermediate and hopefully by Thursday I won't be sore, and Saturday's open mat.

Food:
Breakfast--3 eggs, 3 slices of bacon, a banana, some cherries
Lunch--nothing (I ate a big breakfast on purpose)
Dinner--this amazing Brazilian stew that Todd got a recipe for on PaleoOMG. I'm glad he had to read that site and I didn't.

I also had a chai, of course. (Are you surprised?). I'm kind of amazed that I am more of a chai addict than a chocolate addict, somehow, but only buying expensive chocolate has helped me kill the habit or limit it anyway.

Workout #1 was a really fun one in Intro to Rings: bear walks, froggers, long jumps and sprints. I combined this with some of what I learned at MovNat... especially with long jumps and sprints. I've been working really hard on maintaining good form when running (which you guys will read all about in the August PM) and also, Erwan spent a lot of time working with me one-on-one on making my jumps silent. It feels nice to do stuff beautifully and skillfully instead of just rushing through it, so I did... I've been trying to incorporate that into BJJ, too... instead of just rushing through drills and trying to keep up, to make sure I do them perfectly, even if it's a little slower. I'd rather move well and get what I need to out of the drills than have people think I'm *really fast.*

Workout #2. Speaking of jits. So I made myself go to BJJ today even though I didn't really have the time because I really want to go 3X/week. I got to work with this younger kid, but it was actually okay because he drills hard and we're pretty much at the same ability level or maybe he's slightly better. I think boys around my weight who don't have that man strength yet are around my level. Not like level matters in drilling, though, just someone who's serious and actually drills. So I take back my previous comments about teenagers not wanting to drill; I guess it depends on the teenager.

We worked on two sweeps from De La Riva, one was more sideways and one was over the head when they push in, which is always fun to watch, but I don't look as Cirque de Soleil as my instructor does.

And then we got to do a half guard drill pass game, which was really fun and exhausting. I'm psyched that the intermediate class is actually hard lately.

Didn't get to stay for advanced; too much work which I just finished right now. I was slaving away trying to understand this spreadsheet so I could write a financial summary for a client, but after about an hour of sweating, I realized it was the spreadsheet that was stupid, not me. I mean, who thinks each year has 6 quarters? And who has different years listed vertically than they do horizontally?

Anyway. Of course I ate like crap today and won't get enough sleep, it's 2AM and I have about an hour's worth of dishes and laundry and cleaning to do, but it's my fault for procrastinating during the day...because I was putting off this project.

Okay, so food... I skipped breakfast, and had that leftover curry stuff for lunch, and then I had an apple with almond butter, and then I had two coffees, and then I had these corn enchiladas because I bought a frozen dinner, and yet another coffee type thing. I really need to outsource work that makes me sleepy so I don't need 3 coffees to do it.

So I didn't go to BJJ today. It was a conscious decision. I'm just too sore from yesterday, which is weird, because I think we only did our game for 15 minutes. But it could have to do with the hyper-caffeination and lack of sleep and stress, or something. Even the rings workout was ridiculously hard today, even though it was the exact same one I did earlier this week fairly easily.

But yeah, I guess I don't know why I set up BJJ goals for myself if I'm not gonna keep them. Then again, doing an advanced class when I'm sore seems like it would just make me hate grappling, and I want to enjoy my life instead of just forcing myself to do things so I can get my name checked off on an attendance sheet and get a stripe on my belt sooner, which is kind of a dumb reason to do anything. Though it does suck to still be a white belt after all my years of training.

I think part of it too is that the classes are so different that I don't know what to expect; one day I hear there was a half hour crazy warm-up and sparring for 90 minutes in groups of 3, and other days it's more mellow, and I never know which is which. And I'll admit our world champ summer coach hasn't won my over yet by basically not correcting people in the one class I attended and not rolling with me during open mat. So yeah.

I decided not to compete in the August IBJJF tournament because there was only one girl at the weight I'm currently at and I don't want to lose 10 lbs. in a month and also the girl I want to rematch (we went 1-1) is now UP a weight class from what I'm walking at now, so boo. With only 1 person there and the fact that women get injured or just don't show up 1/3 of the time, doesn't seem worth it. Also, I kind of feel like even locally I've been competing long enough that competing at white belt is no-win. If I win, I'm sandbagging and if I lose, I suck. And then the whole not wanting to spend $300 or $500 or whatever it ends up being between gas and hotel and registration and etc.

SO I'm still looking for more goals but I guess short-term I've been working on my climbing for MovNat and will start with the throwing again--really I just need a better target so I can be a quarter inch above it without hitting the roof. So I guess those are 2 things to focus on. And I figured out what I was doing wrong with the leg swing...

Anyway, rings.

4 X 10 second top holds
4 X 1 hollow body pushup, holding top position for 3, lowering for 3, holding bottom position for 2, then exploding up and holding for 3.
4 X 10 second hollow body plank holds
5 X 10 second handstand holds

No BJJ today because I was proofreading Bellator coverage for Sherdog. But I'll do open mat tomorrow.

Rings was pretty easy; 5 sets of 5 leg lifts with a 5-second hold at the end, 5 ring pullups (I pushed off the ground a bit on the way up and then did the full pull-down portion), 4 hollow body holds (10 seconds), 4 Supermans (10 seconds).

Breakfast: eggs and avocado. but so sick of eggs; didn't eat much
Lunch: leftover bacon/broccoli salad from yesterday
Dinner: chicken
plus pistachios and some chocolate

I think my new goal is going to be to seriously cut down on caffeine or limit it to one caffeine binge a week for now, or something. My body seriously does not handle it well.